Author: Torosian Aram

ACNIS: FIRST-EVER RUSSIA SUPPORTS OPPOSITION

Aysor
April 29 2010
Armenia

Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) held
Thursday a discussion entitled "Revolt in Kyrgyzstan – a lesson for
Armenia?" aiming at considering the issues, related to the protests
and changes of power in Kyrgyzstan. During the discussions the speeches
were given by Representative of the OSCE Military and Political Office
Grigor Mikhailovsky and chief expert at ACNIS Manvel Sarkisian. ACNIS
Director Richard Giragosian will make remarks on the discussion’s
results.

ACNIS administrative director Karapet Kalenchian said that despite
Kyrgyzstan is the poorest post-soviet state, importance of its
geopolitical location make the recent riots in Kyrgyzstan, resulted
in removal of the unpopular government by waves of protests, an
interesting subject to other states in the region.

"It’s important that Russia first-ever supported opposition,
not authorities," said Kalenchian. He said that Kyrgyzstan has
common northern board with Kazakhstan, through which the gas and oil
pipelines – among them Russian – are passing to China; and it has a
common border with China in the south.

Kalenchian pointed out that despite the facts that migrant workers
from the poor Kyrgyzstan are working mainly in Russia, and that the
ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev led the country with his relatives,
however, Kyrgyzstan is the CSTO member and there are Russian and
US bases located on the Kyrgyz territory. Karapet Kalenchian asked
the participants to offer opinions and views on the reasons for the
Kyrgyz revolt, ways of removal of the government, and what a lesson
Armenia should draw from that.

GRAND MASTER ARONIAN WON’T GO TO BAKU

Aysor
April 29 2010
Armenia

Armenia’s Grand Master Levon Aronian said that he had never agreed and
would never agree to participate in the Candidates chess tournament
in Baku.

The statement was made after FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov had said
in his interview that he doesn’t exclude Levon Aronian’s participation
in the Candidates tournament in Azerbaijani capital.

Responding to this, Armenian Chess Federation has written to Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov, FIDE Board, and to leading sport media, including
Sport-Express paper.

MOUVEMENT POUR LA FRANCE : PREMIERE COMMEMORATION DU GENOCIDE ARMENIEN
Stephane

armenews
30 avril 2010
FRANCE

Dimanche a Paris plusieurs milliers de personnes se sont reunies
place du Canada et autour de la tombe du soldat inconnu pour la
première commemoration du genocide armenien a l’occasion de son 95e
anniversaire, en souvenir des 1 million et demi d’armeniens massacres
par les turcs ottomans pendant la Première Guerre mondiale. On
pouvait noter la presence du Primat du diocèse armenien de France,
Monseigneur Norvan Zakarian et du chanteur Charles Aznavour.

Après le rapprochement de l’Armenie avec la Turquie en octobre
dernier lors de la signature d’une entente officielle par les deux
ministres des affaires etrangères concernes, on aurait pu croire a un
processus de reconciliation opere entre les deux pays, notamment au
sujet du genocide.Pourtant, la Turquie ne plie pas : le pays ne veut
pas reconnaître le terme de genocide pour qualifier le massacre qui a
eut lieu en Armenie et parle seulement de 300 000 a 500 000 victimes
armeniennes et turques.

En Armenie, des dizaines de milliers de personnes se sont rassemblees,
une longue procession s’est dirigee vers un memorial au sommet
d’une colline de la capitale armenienne pour y deposer des fleurs en
souvenir des victimes des persecutions. Enfin a Istanbul une centaine
de manifestants s’est aussi rassemblee devant la gare d’Haydarpasa,
d’où est parti le premier convoi de deportation d’armeniens en 1915.

La police a dû ecarter quelques contre-manifestants qui aroboraient
des drapeaux turcs.

Ainsi, un peu partout dans le monde, la communaute armenienne s’est
rassemblee pour rappeler la memoire des massacres operes par la
Turquie. En France, pays parmi les premiers a avoir reconnu le
genocide, une delegation de la communaute armenienne reclame une
loi pour penaliser la negation du genocide armenien, en echo a une
proposition de loi deja en navette au Parlement en 2006.

Il s’agit d’une injustice qui tente donc d’etre reconnue et sanctionnee
afin de pouvoir soulager des milliers voire des millions d’armeniens
endeuilles et delaisses par la Turquie.

Ce pays qui voudrait accelerer les processus de negociations de son
adhesion a l’Union europeenne malgre le fait que, a la barbe de tous,
elle ne fait aucun effort de rapprochement avec l’Armenie et nie
tout genocide.

Le Mouvement Pour la France demande a ce que la peine et les
revendications des armeniens soient entendues par le Gouvernement
francais et l’Union europeenne afin que soit adoptees des resolutions
de loi penalisant l’attitude de la Turquie.

Le Mouvement accuse les processus de negociation d’adhesion de
la Turquie a l’Union europeenne, beaucoup trop rapides et inegaux
par rapport a l’effort fourni par le gouvernement turc. La France,
qui a deja ouvert, en decembre dernier, le douzième chapitre des
negociations europeennes, a le devoir de prendre en consideration
les enjeux primordiaux de justice qui se doivent d’etre assures
et preserves pour l’equilibre des peuples europeens. Le refus de
reconnaitre un fait historiquement prouve est le signe que la Turquie
ne partage pas les valeurs fondamentales de la culture Europeenne.

‘HATE RHETORIC’ IN TURKISH PRESS SHOWS SMALL DECLINE

Hurriyet
April 29 2010
Turkey

The Turkish press has shown improvement over the past three years
in avoiding the use of ‘hate rhetoric’ that can lead to hate crimes,
new research reveals. According to the findings, hate rhetoric in the
media is most often based on ethnic issues or religious convictions.

Experts say a clear law defining hate crimes must be endorsed as soon
as possible The Turkish press has exhibited greater awareness about
publishing news that could fall into the category of hate rhetoric
or hate crimes since the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink, a group of experts has concluded.

According to their research, which was made available to the public
Thursday, most of the "hate rhetoric" published in Turkey is based
on ethnic background and religious beliefs.

After scanning the past 10 years of news in 20 daily papers, the
researchers chose 10 stories that they considered the most striking
examples of inciting hatred toward a specific group.

"Hate rhetoric leads to hate crimes and the media plays a critical
role in this sense, just as it plays a critical role in broadening
the use of positive language," said Cengiz Algan, the head of the
Association of Social Change, which conducted the research.

A 2005 headline from daily Star, "Traitors are captured," was
picked to exemplify hate rhetoric. (The paper is owned today by a
different media group than it was at that time.) The news concerned
two children, ages 12 and 14, who were taken into custody by the
police for allegedly setting a Turkish flag on fire at the March 21
commemoration of Nevruz, a celebration of the arrival of spring in
many parts of the Middle East.

In recent years, Nevruz has taken on a political connotation in parts
of Turkey, with certain media outlets and interest groups representing
it as a politicized event celebrated mostly by members of the country’s
Kurdish population.

According to the research, hate rhetoric against certain groups shows
a tendency to increase during specific time periods. In addition to
March 21, where there is often aggressive rhetoric exhibited against
Kurds, anti-Armenian rhetoric often becomes stronger and more frequent
leading up to April 24, a date of mourning for Armenians.

Last April 24 provided a reason for hope, however, according to Cengiz
Aktar from Istanbul’s BahceÅ~_ehir University, who noted that a group
of intellectuals held remembrance ceremonies in Turkey for the first
time for the alleged 1915 killings of Armenians.

"Although mainstream media tried to exploit the ceremonies that were
held at four different places, it fell behind the state this time. The
approach of security forces was more neutral compared to that of some
media outlets," said Aktar, who was on the consultative board of the
research and is also a columnist for the Daily News.

Aktar said there has been improvement in avoiding the use of hate
rhetoric since the murder of Dink, as well as the murder of Christian
missionaries in Malatya in 2007.

Other types of hate rhetoric are based on gender and sexual
orientation, according to the researchers, who picked two new stories
about transvestites among their 10 examples of media reports that
incited hatred. Another news story about a female German politician
was given as an example of hate rhetoric based on gender.

Minimizing the use of hate rhetoric

There is no law in Turkey that covers hate crimes, including Article
122 of the Turkish Penal Code criminalizing discrimination, said
Yasemin Ä°nceoglu from Istanbul’s Galatasaray University. A member
of the report’s consultative board, Ä°nceoglu said hate crimes need
to be clearly defined in the Turkish Penal Code and encouraged media
outlets to start a joint campaign to avoid using hate rhetoric.

"Internal education in the media is also important to raise awareness
on the subject," she added.

The report also encouraged readers to condemn news that incites hatred
by various means, including making comments on stories posted online.

Newspapers surveyed

The newspapers surveyed by the researchers with the Association of
Social Change were AkÅ~_am, Birgun, Cumhuriyet, Fotomac, Gundem,
Hurriyet, Milli Gazete, Milliyet, Ortadogu, Posta, Radikal, Sabah,
Star, Taraf, Turkiye, Vakit, Vatan, Yeni Å~^afak, Yenicag and Zaman.

The consultative board

Members of the consultative board for the research were Aydın
Engin (journalist), AyÅ~_e Hur (historian/author), BagıÅ~_ Erten
(journalist), Dr. Baskın Oran, Dr. Cengiz Aktar (BahceÅ~_ehir
University,) IÅ~_ın Elicin (journalist,) Kerem Kabadayı (musician),
Assistant Professor Kerem Rızvanoglu (Galatasaray University,) Sefa
Kaplan (journalist), Professor Turgut Tarhanlı (Bilgi University),
Professor Yasemin Ä°nceoglu (Galatasaray University) and Zeynep Tanbay
(artist).

"ARMENIAN -BRITISH UNION" SUGGESTS A PROGRAM OF COLLABORATION
Svetlana Khachatryan

Azat Artsakh Newspaper: [NKR]
April 21, 2010
NAGORNO KARABAKH REPUBLIC

On April 19, the NKR President Bako Sahakyan accepted the members of
"Armenian-British Union" council. It’s a public organization, the
members of which are Armenian young specialists got education and
working experience basically in Great Britain. As the founder of the
union and the chair of the council Hayk Harutyunyan has represented,
purposes of the organization are laminated: to favour the special
and educational development of the members, to try to create a
world network of the Armenian specialists by using this potential,
which will become a huge personnel base. The organization has already
promoted collaboration with other Armenian public organizations, and
for the purpose of broadening these circles, there is wish to include
also Artsakh. The NKR President, as well as leaders of corresponding
departments were given a package of collaboration’s mechanisms. They
represented also their suggestions at the meeting.

An International grant program acts also in the organization. It was
suggested to create a fund of the President of the Artsakh Republic,
which will support people of Artsakh getting education corresponding
to educational international standards in leading universities of
the world. The NKR President greeted the process, saying, that he
was too concerned with such collaboration not only in education,
but also other spheres. But all the more in education sphere, as
it’s a strategic direction for our country. Minister of Education
and Science V. Khachatryan expressed positively about such programs,
as it’s a way coming from Declaration of Bolonia (to which Artsakh
was also adopted), and English educational system is the best in the
world. From coming year they will try to involve pupils of Artsakh
in these schools, said the chair of "Armenian-British Union".

The head of NKR Supreme Court Ararat Danielyan and minister of culture
and youth affairs Narine Aghabalyan assisted also at the meeting.

TURKISH AUTHOR SENER FEARS PRISON TERM AWAITS AFTER HEARLNG

Hurriyet
April 28 2010
Turkey

Nedim Å~^ener, a reporter for the daily Milliyet, said Wednesday after
his latest hearing that he is likely to be the first person sentenced
in a case related to the assassination of Hrant Dink.

Å~^ener said that the prosecutor dropping two charges against him for
obtaining and revealing classified documents supported his claim that
he reported only the facts of the Dink murder in his book. He still
faces one charge and up to three years in prison.

Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin and former editor in chief
of the daily Agos, was murdered on Jan. 19, 2007. Parliamentary
investigations into the assassination found evidence that the
intelligence departments of the police and the gendarmerie had
information about the planning of the murder but failed to prevent it.

Å~^ener, author of the book "Hrant Dink Cinayeti ve Ä°stihbarat
Yalanları" (The Hrant Dink Murder and Intelligence Lies) is facing
trial for "making targets of civil servants fighting terrorism,"
"obtaining secret documents," and "exposing secret documents."

During the last hearing of the trial, Public Prosecutor Celal Kara
demanded a prison sentence of one to three years for Å~^ener for "making
targets of civil servants fighting terrorism." He dropped the other
charges, however, because the secret documents in the book were no
longer classified since they could be reached by multiple parties in
the Dink assassination case. Lawyers of the police argued that the
documents should still be considered classified regardless of their
inclusion in the case dossier.

Å~^ener, who recently won the Abdi Ä°pekci Journalism Award of the Year
for his reporting on the Dink assassination, spoke to the Hurriyet
Daily News & Economic Review in light of recent developments in the
case. Å~^ener said the prosecutor had merged the complaints of the four
police officers and asked for a penalty of one to three years,
otherwise the sentence could be up to 12 years.

The total of the original sentence demanded with the three charges was
up to 20 years. "This is positive but [still] not normal," said Å~^ener,
adding that the names of the police officers were mentioned in the
press before his book was released. Å~^ener said although the prosecutor
dropped some of the charges the court could still decide to act on
them. The final hearing will be July 4. Å~^ener is also on trial for two
other cases related to his book, potentially facing 4.5 and eight
years in prison.

ISRAEL REFUSED TO SELL ARMAMENTS TO TURKEY
By Hovik Afyan

Azg
April 28 2010
Armenia

Today Knesset discusses the Armenian Genocide resolution

As "Azg" daily has already informed, today the Knesset, Israeli
Parliament, will discuss the Armenian Genocide resolution.

Taking into account Israeli-Turkish recent strained relations, we
cherish hopes that the people that has gone through Holocaust will
recognize the Armenian Genocide.

There are some preconditions and bases for it. Mainly, Turkish Armed
Forces Headquarters asked Israel for buying the anti-aircraft system
"Barack". But, according to Israeli media, Israel refused to comply
with the request. One of the reasons of refusal is that Tel-Aviv is
afraid that after selling the system, it may appear in the hands of
Iran, Israeli news agencies note.

So, the Armenian Genocide resolution is discussed today in rather
anti-Turkish atmosphere.

OSCE CHAIRMAN-IN-OFFICE DISCUSSES WITH AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN FMS NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT

Trend
April 27 2010
Azerbaijan

On April 27, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Secretary of State –
Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Kanat Saudabayev held a telephone
conversation with the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov
and Armenia Edward Nalbandian, Kazinform refers to the press service
of the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office discussed with the ministers the situation
and prospects with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process.

Saudabayev expressed a sincere interest in strengthening efforts in
finding solutions to situations, opportunities for Kazakh President
Nursultan Nazarbayev’s participation in it personally as the Head of
State, chairing the OSCE.

In addition, the sides exchanged views on preparations for conducting
the informal meeting of Council of Foreign Ministers of OSCE in Almaty
on 16-17 July, as well as a substantive filling of the OSCE Summit
to be held on the initiative of Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2010.

TURKISH OFFICIAL CONDEMNED FOR CYNICAL STATEMENT ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

news.am
April 28 2010
Armenia

A cynical statement concerning the Armenian Genocide made by Vefa
Bardakcı, Head of the Education Department, Canakkale province,
caused a stir in Turkey. "You stabbed us in the back, you betrayed
us. You were retaliated against for that betrayal," he said.

The head of the regional chapter of the Justice and Development Party
condemned Vefa Bardakci. In his turn, the head of the Republican
People’s Party (RPP) chapter was severely critical of the official.

"We expected the head of the education department to provide
historical information rather than statements full of hate and sense
of vengeance. We urge the official to resign," he said.

Hayrettin PiÅ~_kin, Executive Council member of the Canakkale chapter,
Human Rights Union of Turkey, demanded that the official be immediately
relieved of his post for making a statement like that.

"IF THERE WERE PRECONDITIONS THEN WHY DIDN’T TURKEY RATIFY?"

Aysor
April 27 2010
Armenia

Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian in his interview with the
Public Television of Armenia commented the process of Armenia-Turkey
reconciliation and statements on possible inclusion of preconditions
in the protocols, signed between the two countries.

"If there were preconditions then why didn’t Turkey ratify the
protocols? In the whole world there is no one, who saw preconditions
in the protocols, but some Armenia’s opponents. Even Turkey’s Prime
Minister said that there were not preconditions in the protocols,"
said Edward Nalbandian.

"The same way Turkish opposition criticized country’s government for
absence of the preconditions and signing the protocols without those
provisions in they’d like to see," added Nalbandian.